1934 Ford Twin-Turbo Big-Block Coupe

Let’s see: no radiator, no water pump, a tall-deck big-block, and twin 88mm turbos for a grille; come on—there’s no way this car can be driven on the street. But, builder Ed Umland swears owner Rich Feicheer drives this 1934 Ford on a regular basis. Seriously? Seriously.

You’re right to be skeptical. We’ve been wrong about Ed and his crazy talk before, like when we featured his twin-turbo 1937 Ford in “Couperageous” (Mar. 2013). Back then, he told us his 1,200hp coupe could run the quarter-mile in the 9s with seamless street sessions. We called B.S. But, he proved us wrong at HOT ROD’s first Flog Test, so perhaps we should look into his latest proclamations further.

2/15This ’34 Ford dirt-track dog has miraculously found new life with owner Rick Feicheer and builder Ed Umland from Eddie’s Chop Shop in Sacramento, California. The hopeless heap has been rejuvenated for the street, strip, and perhaps even Bonneville one day.

Despite appearances, Feicheer’s ’34 Ford coupe does have a radiator—it’s tucked into the trunk. As for the lack of a water pump, the FAST XFI fuel-injection system not only controls the 16 injectors, it also manages an electric water pump, adjusts the turbo boost, air shifts the transmission, turns on the radiator fans, and controls the trans brake for those times Feicheer gets the urge to squirt down the quarter-mile. But, Feicheer’s not seeking serious times. We mean, he didn’t ask Umland to build him a seriously competitive drag coupe. If this car is as docile on the street as Ed claims, it can’t be the opposite on the strip. Or can it?

The coupe has been an all-consuming project for Umland, who owns Eddie’s Chop Shop (EddiesChopShop.com) in Sacramento, California. It was an old dirt car Feicheer dropped off at Umland’s to be transformed into a hot rod he could drag race. But there are always problems transforming a frog into a prince—in this case, problems such as the doors being welded up with no doorjambs left. And that was the good part. The old warrior had been passed around over the years in numerous attempts to revive it, with all of the fixes instead taking it further into Never-Never Land.

3/15This lump of aluminum and steel is engine porn to many. There’s no way you could hang a radiator and grille ahead of the turbo plumbing and still have a compelling proportion, so the radiator is in the trunk and the grille is a wall hanger.

Starting with the dual-purpose dream Rich Feicheer had for the car, Ed got him to see things his way before commencing on such an ambitious project. Superchargers are no good in Um-Land. Turbos are the main course for anything approaching a street/strip application, especially when Feicheer’s goal was to run in the 9s.

You can’t cram all your heart’s desires into a single car, but Ed is accommodating. “So once I talked Feicheer into doing the turbo deal, he said, ‘I want to run 8s with the car,’” Ed says. “And then he said 7s.”

“You can only be good at one thing, and we wanted it to be good at doing two things.” — Ed Umland

Don Zimena at Motor Machine in Carmichael, California, put together the 598ci big-block Chevy starting with a Dart tall-deck block and Big Chief heads. A Callies forged crank and rods were used with JE pistons, a Crane cam with 0.768-inch lift, and 291/295 degrees of duration with a 115-degree lobe separation. A bright-red MSD front-mount beltdrive distributor visually announces the torque monster has arrived. A Mallory Firestorm dual-sync cam and crankshaft position sensor is now plugged into the hole the distributor once occupied.

Eddie’s Chop Shop fabricated the car’s intake, intercoolers, and headers. That Moon tank in front holds ice water to cool the air coming out of the turbos. Eddie’s Chop Shop also did all of the turbo plumbing.

5/15The heart of the induction is the twin Comp turbos with Turbo Smart wastegates and blow-off valves. The 3½-gallon Moon tank holds ice water that’s fed to the intercoolers. “We tuned the engine to make 14 psi of boost on pump gas, and it dynos at 1,240 hp to the tires. We can go down the track all day long at 7 psi of boost, but as soon as we turn it up we lose traction.”

Needing a transmission that worked well for both the street and strip, Umland called on Jim Galatioto at ATO Transmission in Rancho Cordova, California, to build a TH400 with billet-steel shafts and aluminum drums. “When you want to go with something nice on the street, yet still be able to handle tremendous torque on the track, the torque converter can be tricky,” Ed says. Continental Torque Converters built a 10-inch converter.

9/15For being so extreme in almost every category, from the top chop, to the overall rake, and especially the engine selection, the old coupe is still recognizable as a traditional hot rod—just in a Blade Runner sort of way. The lack of a grille and transfer of the radiator to the rear were partially prompted by wanting the coupe to look like a “full-race” car running on the street.

The car came with a Winters quick-change rear, which is the weak link in this application, but surprisingly even after multiple 4,400-rpm launches it’s still alive. “When it breaks, we’ll do something about it, but I like that it lets you change to helical-cut gears for street use; the rearend gets quiet and the car just idles down the road so nice,” says Ed.

By using reproduction ’34 truck framerails fitted with chrome-moly crossmembers, the chassis and cage are certified to 7.50 seconds. Anything quicker would demand a complete chrome-moly frame. “We chose to keep the stock framerails because we wanted the car to be a hot rod and not a full-blown race car,” says Ed.

To package those two 88mm Comp turbos, Ed decided to swap the radiator to the rear, ditch the grille, and fake onlookers into thinking it’s either an unfinished car—or a serious race car, which it kind of is. “You need a big radiator to cool that much horsepower, and it just wasn’t going to fit in the front, so putting it in the back solved that problem,” Ed says. Plus, he doesn’t like ’34 grilles anyway. What? “I hate that look. The engine is hanging way out there, and then you add the turbos to the front and by the time you add a grille in front of all that, it looks like crap.”

Of course, cooling your car from the other end creates a whole encyclopedia of problems. Ed says he gets calls about just this situation. “The problem with most cooling issues is guys place a mechanical fan 6 inches from the radiator,” says Ed. “The fan is going to draw air from the path of least resistance, so if the fan is 6 inches from the radiator, it’s just going to pull the air that’s behind the radiator and not draw anything through it. It’s the same premise in the back of the car.” There’s no ducting on the ’34 per se, but the two electric fans are attached to a sheetmetal shroud helping to draw air through the louvers in the Steve’s Auto Restoration decklid. The natural airflow around the trunk allows plenty of air to flow across and through the radiator surfaces.

10/15The Eddie’s Chop Shop tinwork helps to duct the air through the rear-mounted aluminum radiator. The gas tank is located just below the radiator.

As for the notoriously heat-generating turbos, Ed’s not worried. “That’s one of the good things about turbos. They only make heat when you’re on them making boost, unlike a Roots-type blower which constantly makes heat. On a car like this you don’t need boost on the street, so it’s just a low compression motor.”

14/15A chrome-moly rollcage gets the car certified to 7.50 seconds for drag racing. The aluminum bomber seats were created by Eddie’s Chop Shop, as was pretty much everything you see in this shot.

Though the body had an ancient chopped top, it needed to be re-chopped. Ed did the honors, as well as rebuilding the door openings and jambs on both sides and rebuilding the tops of both doors. The usual patch panels were needed, and at the rear, Ed cleaned up the panel below the decklid and then created the rolled pan. Once the basic body was sorted out, Ed’s team created the dash, door panels, and firewall with his signature quilted sheetmetal work, and then he added the removable modular floor. He wanted to be able to yank the transmission, which can come out without pulling the body or even removing the seats. Ed says, “Rick is running the car hard, so I wanted to be able to work on stuff pretty easily on the track.” He also fabbed the cool bomber-style seats.

Another trick on the inside he’s especially proud of is the “Lenco-style” door and window opening mechanism. “I didn’t want to add heavy door mechanisms, so I built this neat bellcrank assembly with a push/pull lever that closes the windows and opens the doors,” Ed says. The door opener and window crank pivot on the same point, and when the door panels are finished, most of the mechanism will be covered.

15/15The louvered Steve’s Auto Restorations decklid helps draw air through the rear-mounted radiator aided by two electric fans, which are controlled by a FAST engine control unit. The louvered rear pan and wheelwells were fabbed by Eddie’s Chop Shop. The taillights are vintage aircraft pieces.

“If all the tubing used on the ’34 were placed end to end, it would reach from California to Maine.” — Ed Umland

So is the coupe finished? Yes and no. It sure seems like a real car, even though it’s faking it as a half-finished drag hag. Ed says the plan was to paint the car all along, but he likes to sort out complicated projects like this before getting into expensive paint and finish. But everybody likes it the way it is, including Feicheer.

“We ended up with a car that’s certified to 7.50, and it’s still very streetable,” says Ed. The car’s best times on the local quarter-mile are 8.3 seconds at 167 mph. “That’s with the boost turned down as low as possible, otherwise the car blows the tires off.”

Future plans for the car now include Bonneville. It seems Feicheer got the salt bug after Ed and he ran a T roadster at Speed Week. So now they’re looking for a class they can slot the coupe into for next year. This racing coupe will likely end up competing in the racing trifecta of dirt, asphalt, and salt before long, if Ed can find the time between projects and if Rick can find time between cruising Sactown in this crusty, fast competition coupe.